tag: virtual prototypes

In this blog we tend to focus on the benefits and opportunities that arise when using virtual prototyping. However, in real life we well know that any situation bears not only opportunities but also risks. I was reminded of this by the recent earthquake disaster in Kumamoto Japan. Having lived in the most earthquake prone areas in the world for the past 10 years, I know firsthand how easy it is... » read more

The semiconductor industry always has used metrics to define progress, and in areas such as functional verification significant advances have been made. But so far, no effective metrics have been developed for power, performance, or other system-level concerns, which basically means that design teams have to run blind.
On the plus side, the industry has migrated from the use of code coverage... » read more

Abstraction allows aspects of a design to be described in an executable form much earlier in the flow. But some abstractions are breaking down, and an increasing amount of lower-level information has to be brought upstream in order to provide estimates that are close enough to reality so informed decisions can be made.
The value of abstractions in design cannot be overstated. High levels of ... » read more

There has been an almost constant disagreement between the generally held view about what ESL is and my own views on the subject. It is not completely surprising, given that I have spent most of my time as a verification specialist working within the EDA industry. EDA has been driven by design, and all of the largest EDA companies grew out of advances on the design side.
[getkc id="10" kc_na... » read more

In this whitepaper, we will apply virtual Fault Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) concepts on a specific case study, an Electrical Vehicle Powertrain (EVP) system. We will show how this EVP system is refined from a Software-in-the Loop (SIL) level to a virtual Hardware-in-the-Loop level (vHIL), using a Virtualizer Development Kit (VDK). Hardware faults are applied to the resulting system and its ... » read more

Prototyping is an integral part of every [getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"] today, with two main approaches being used: virtual or software-based, and physical, which includes FPGA-based boards as well as hardware emulation systems.
[getkc id="104" kc_name="Virtual prototyping"] is typically used for software development in the early stages of SoC design, even before SoC [getkc id="49" kc_name="R... » read more

Almost all electronics devices have some way to connect to other devices. While we don’t really think about it a lot, these interfaces actually have to be quite smart and need to deal with a lot of different device types and/or handle a great deal of data, preferably all while consuming as little power as possible.
As a result, device drivers for this type of interface IP are non-trivial.... » read more

Everything we do is based on a language. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about design, verification, specification, software or mask data. They all provide a way to communicate intent, and then there are engines that work on the intent to produce something else that is desirable, also based on a language. Over time, the EDA industry has built up a hierarchy of languages from the most deta... » read more

The past appears to be a lot simpler than the present and when we look into the future, the right decisions often look highly uncertain. This is the value of hindsight, but also includes the notion that the winner gets to write history. What semiconductors look like today could have been very different if different decisions had been made 20 years ago. What if the industry had adopted a paralle... » read more

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the state of the industry for [getkc id="101" kc_name="modeling"] at abstractions above [getkc id="49" kc_name="RTL"], a factor which has delayed adoption of [getkc id="104" kn_name="virtual prototypes"] and the proliferation of system-level design and hardware/software codesign. Taking part in the discussion were Frank Schirrmeister, group director... » read more